While Azul was distracting the Sect Founder, her team of Oathguards had infiltrated the Sharkborn Sect and planted the seed of the Guardian Tree Sapling inside. Originally, they had planned for Azul to kill the Sect leader first and then lure out the ancestor, but the sect leader was too cowardly to come out first.
Since the Sect leader was only in the middle stages of the Spirit Severing Realm, the team of 15 Oathguards was enough to raid him like a lv. 135 Dungeon boss. Together with the teams of golems, they were enough to keep the sect leader and disciples at bay until the tree sapling grew and took care of the rest.
"What is this!? What is happening!" the old hag screamed. Upon being thrown into the ruins of her sect, she was caught by the warm embrace of the tree sapling, which was binding her in roots and vines.
Azul was actually surprised she was still alive and kicking. However, the smoking remnants of the massive saber she used to hold quickly explained how she survived. The wide blade had broken around a massive hole, molten through it.
She had actually managed to block
"Do you even know who I am?! I'm the disciple of Elder Whaleborn of the Great Deep Sea One Mountain Association in the Qiandao Province! If I die, he will know and take revenge for me!" she threatened them with her master.
"You are a disciple of a big-shot from a different province?" Azul asked, intrigued. That was not part of their intel. To be fair, just finding out she was still alive was an accomplishment. "...And we can't kill you, or he will come for revenge, yes?" the chimera asked.
"Haha! Yes, if you get it, release me! Ugh, this demonic plant... what are you doing...?" Her boastful tone quickly faltered when the tree sapling started draining her true essence. Her struggle calmed down, and she began to mumble.
"If there is someone appearing if you die, you just won't die. Have fun being a tree battery," Azul said with a shrug, as the old hag was pulled underground by the roots. As the main tree did to the legends, the sapling would bind her and drain just so much that she wouldn't die.
"What is a battery...? Noo..." she mumbled, having a hard time even staying conscious as she was absorbed into the dense root system. Azul found this kind of fate cruel, but she had really chosen that for herself.
"Did any stragglers get away?" she asked the party leader of the Oathguards.
"Apparently, there are still a couple of disciples and an elder on missions, but nothing consequential," he gave his estimate. The chimera nodded.
"Alright, I guess we are done here. Let's take a little break and return tomorrow. "
...
---Western Shore Hall---
The great Fortress of the Western Shore Hall was bathed in flames as the skies were blotted out by arrows. The rulers of the western trade routes were facing an unprecedented crisis. Where the arrows fell, they exploded in terrifying fireballs, razing to the ground whatever stood there.
The fleet of ships in the harbor was burning. Their remaining flying ships had turned to ashes. Their men? Gone. The foundation of everything he worked for was going up in smoke, and he couldn't stop it.
"You bitch! Stop dodging and face me!" the leader of the pirate fortress cursed. He could only helplessly watch the work of his life get burned to the ground while fighting the nimble wolf that had lured him out of the fortress.
Suddenly, his two short blades were blocked by a weird cudgel he had never seen before. He had not even seen the beast switch out her bow. Where did her bow go?
"Ugh!" The edges of the blades ground against the silver cudgel, locked in a battle of power. His muscles actually started quivering, facing the overpowering resistance. What happened? Wasn't the shapeshifter an archer? He had to circulate his inner energy to hold against the force of her weapon.
"You look confused. Didn't you ask me to face you?" she asked with her wolfish grin. "Don't tell me you thought you could take me because I was using a bow earlier," she said with a terrifying fire in her canine eyes.
"Blades of the Wave Breaker!" he explained the name of his technique, circulating his energy as he passed through the motions of his attack. His hands moved at incredible speed, weaving a net of invisible energy blades that would mince the furry beast into a hairy pile of meat.
Suddenly, blood spurted from his own arms, and he wailed as his flesh was rent by dozens of cuts. Before him, the beast was holding up its forearms, glowing with formations of light. She had blocked his attack, but it did not vanish; it hit him instead...? His mind short-circuited for a moment as he tried to understand what just happened.
"Ugh!" The moment was suddenly ended when he failed to evade the vicious cudgel coming straight for his shoulder. He felt his collarbone and shoulder blades get pulverized.
"You don't have the time to get distracted with me, my guy," she exclaimed with a chuckle, the cudgel already coming at him again. He ducked away from the first attack and used his light movement to evade the series of malicious swings that came for his life.
He felt embarrassed being forced to do the same thing he taunted her for. But he needed to survive this. With a whirl of energy, he increased the distance between them to buy time. He needed to take a healing pill, and once he was healed, he would-
"...Charge, consume, disintegrate! Fireball, explode!"
Like an arrow loosened from a bow, a bright ball of fiery bright energy left her left hand and shot towards him with terrifying speed. The healing pill slipped through his finger as he belatedly evaded the bright projectile.
Boom!
He evaded a direct impact, but the technique exploded right behind him, the fierce heat burning away flesh and fabric on his back. His body was overcome with terrible pain as his legs refused to carry him further.
"Tsk, tsk, such a disappointment. I didn't even get to go all out. But I guess not every sect and organization can hide and expert to save their ass and engage in a proper fight..." the wolf mumbled, as he walked over to him with displayed leisure.
She had been playing with him this whole time.
"Oh well, someone has to clean up the small fries to get the message across,2 she said deliberately. He knew she was taunting him, but he could only grit his teeth.
"Don't take it to heart. Look, I'm sure the people you abducted and trafficked from Urth had it a lot worse than you. Just-"
Without warning, the bat descended on his head, and the world turned dark. His life ended, just like that.
"- Hold still, and I'll make it quick," Lydia finished her sentence, although nobody was left to hear her. After making sure the Leader of the Western Shore Hall was properly gone and didn't pull any Nascent Soul shenanigans, the Chosen of Wepwawet brought out her com-orb.
"Archer, you can stop the arrows now. Sent the Oathguards in to plant the tree, then we can leave."